HPRC in the News

2011

Press Releases

Tax on Sugary Drinks, Limits on Marketing to Children Among Cost-effective Strategies

For immediate release: Thursday, August 25, 2011, 6:30 PM ET

Boston, MA – The global obesity epidemic has been escalating for three to four decades, yet long-term prevention efforts have barely begun and are inadequate, according to a new paper from international public health experts published in the August 25, 2011 edition of the journal The Lancet. The authors call on governments around the world to launch a coordinated effort to monitor, prevent, and control obesity, and the long-term health, social and economic costs associated with it.
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Following school district policy change, students drank fewer sodas, sports drinks and fruit drinks

For immediate release: Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Boston, MA –Two years after Boston schools prohibited the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas and sports drinks, local high school students were consuming significantly fewer sugary drinks, according to a new study published in Preventing Chronic Disease.
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In the Media

(The Boston Globe) — “Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston and public health authorities unveiled a public awareness campaign…that urges residents to reduce consumption of sweetened beverages…The campaign, which will include a media blitz, premieres a month before an executive order by Menino phases out the sale, advertising, and promotion of sugar-sweetened beverages in all city buildings…The…federally funded campaign will blanket Boston…[and] focus on black and Latino neighborhoods.”Read more…

(The Boston Globe) — “The seven-year-old policy restricting the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages in Boston Public Schools appears to be paying off: Consumption dropped among high school students…The drop in Boston compares with very little change…among teenagers nationally…The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, at the direction of state legislators…proposed instituting a similar policy in all the state’s public schools that would take effect in the 2012-2013 school year.”Read more…